Village the Game: Play it. Love it. Live it.

What happens when you mix health care with franchising tactics such as those used by McDonald's, Subway, or 7-Eleven and introduce this practice to a developing country? The HealthStore Foundation® model proves that you get affordable health care that is more widely available than before. Scott Hillstrom, a corporate lawyer and businessman from Minnesota, had such a vision for a changed and better Africa; an Africa that allows African children to live longer and fuller lives, without having to fear the number one child killer--malaria. According to an article Hillstrom read during the mid 90's in The New York Times, the reason 25,000 children died everyday in the developing world was due to a shortage of medicines to prevent malaria and other preventable diseases--medicines that cost as little as a cup of coffee.

In 1997, Hillstrom and Eva Ombaka, a native from Tanzania with a PhD in pharmaceutical microbiology, founded the nonprofit organization, The HealthStore Foundation® (then it was called the "Sustainable Healthcare Enterprise Foundation") and established a franchise project now known as Child and Family Wellness Shops ("CFWshops ," for short). To date, there are now 65 CFWshops franchises in Kenya. Plans are well underway to grow the Kenya network to 225 outlets in the next five years as well as launch CFWshops networks in other countries, beginning with Rwanda in 2008.

According to the organization, The HealthStore Foundation® model "incorporates all the key elements of successful franchising: uniform systems and training; careful selection of locations; and most importantly, strict controls on quality backed up by regular inspections... and importantly, HealthStore uses the combined buying power of the full network to obtain quality medicines at the lowest possible cost." (See http://healthstore.org/overview.html for more information.) Since the first 11 outlets were opened in 2000, CFWshops have been revolutionizing the health care industry in Kenya and serving as a precedent for similar ventures in other countries. Franchises, in general, have to remain up to par and are frequently visited by inspectors to insure the highest quality. Like Subway and McDonalds, CFWshops are able to generate a large customer base and build community trust by building franchisee-consumer relationships. The high quality and friendly service are what ensures the consumer will return again and again, in addition to attracting more customers through a high level of consumer recommendations.

CFWshops strive to increase access to basic health care in environments where people lack adequate access to such healthcare. People commonly lack access to such healthcare for three reasons in rural Kenya: quality, distance, and/or cost. The majority of the 65 CFWshops outlets are located in rural areas; patients report that they appreciate receiving effective treatment for a short list of prevalent diseases within a short walk of where they live, no longer having to miss work to walk to more distant health facilities.

Not only are health care franchises good for people's health, they also empower the franchisee by allowing them to generate more income and investing that income back into their villages. Franchises are subsidized through donations, while the franchisee finances the rest . In partnership with Village the Game, The HealthStore Foundation® will be featured as one of the social enterprising options for village growth within the game.

For more information on The HealthStore Foundation® and CFWshops, visit their web site at: www.healthstore.org and also watch the PBS video aired on May 2007.